Introduction to American Government and Politics

Ciera Rowland  

Professor Jenkins  

PS 101  

6 April 2022  

Blog Post 2 

A further look into the community of women in sports is the topic of Title IX. Title IX, put simply, is that no person in the United States should be excluded from participation, be denied of benefits, or be discriminated against in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance (U.S. Department of Education, 2021). According to the article “Discrimination Against Women in College Sports is Getting Worse”, it states that because athletics is sex-segregated, discrimination and gaps are easy to measure and throughout intercollegiate sports the inequality is growing at an unrestrained rate (Janine, 2020). A couple of the key findings from the research reveal that 90% of universities and colleges discriminate against women in sports and NCAA institutions would have to provide an additional 198,094 sports opportunities to match the same ratio offered to men (Janine, 2020). The NCAA, NAIA, NJCAA, and USCAA shows that the discrimination against women is not subject to just specific conferences, competitive levels, or geographic reasons. Ultimately no matter where women go to compete in sports there will be discrimination in some style or form by not allowing equal opportunities that men receive.  

In continuation, Title IX is supposed to allow equal opportunities for all who compete in sports and receive financial funding and while there is a perception that this title has achieved the goal of equality, there is research that says otherwise. The community that this discrimination in intercollegiate sports affects is women. The article states that the raw gap in 2019-2020 academic year between men’s sports and women’s sports opportunities was 96,963 which means that there were 96,963 fewer opportunities provided to women from schools than men (Janine, 2020). The gap between men and women sports has growing over the last 30 years. This is not a new concept and women are still faced with unequal opportunities in sports. The graph attached to this document at the bottom really shows the Raw Gap between women’s and men’s sports offered dating from 1971 to 2019. It shows the current opportunities provided to men, provided to women, and women’s sports if women were provided equal opportunities. It is shocking to see the difference between women’s sports now and women’s sports hypothetically. The idea that women are approximately 54.5% of the student-body and that universities would have to offer and additional 198,094 opportunities for women to play each year to match the men’s sports. Essentially, the issue of discrimination in sports primarily revolves around women and the unequal opportunities provided to them to compete in intercollegiate sports.  

Furthermore, there are many different stakeholders that play a role in Title IX. When Title IX was first created it did not mention sports. According to Edwards in her research, Perspectives of Title IX, athletics became the primary source amongst the policy-making groups (Edwards, 2010). Female athletes started to gain media attention due to the women’s movement back in the 70’s. This resulted in Congress expanding Title IX to include intercollegiate athletes to help resolve the discrimination between women’s and men’s sports. As more light began to shine on women’s sports the famous Sports Illustration published a rare series that focused solely on women’s sports. This caused fear in men because they thought it would negatively affect sports. For a while, people were able to still get away with discrimination because Title IX was not specific, but the 1974 Education Amendments implemented that Title IX focus in equal opportunity for both sexes. The biggest issue that was faced was the uncertainty of how to enforce and implement Title IX. Athletic departments and institutions are faced with hardships on how to implement Title IX and provide equal opportunities for women.  

In essence, there are numerous ways to promote equal opportunities in sports for women. A few is to support women’s sports as a fan or player, develop gender equality policies, avoid sexist language, and hire more female sports executives. Doing the little things that people may deem as unimportant will help create a better future for women’s sports and allow more opportunities at the intercollegiate level. Creating policies that allow equal opportunities will help diminish the discrimination that women who play sports face. It is important to allow women to compete in sports at the intercollegiate level at the same rate men are allowed and with the same opportunities. Implementing the same rules for women as men is another way to create ways for women to compete the same way men are able to. As Title IX has tried to improve the discrimination against women it still has its flaws that do not give women the equal opportunities.